the b-sides
by fan-nerd
Summary: Naruto occasionally slips through time.
**title** _ **:** _ the b-sides
 **summary** : Naruto occasionally slips through time.  
 **a/n:** There is a lot of stuff going on in this fic. It's got a lot of timeskips/slips, which are marked by transition in the header of each section: # / #. First number is 'chronological' age. Second number is age Naruto switches to. There are also mentions of demisexuality/demiromanticism, and of suicidal tendencies/depression. Crossposted from AO3.

Please enjoy!

* * *

 _forty-five / one_

Naruto opens his eyes to unfamiliar surroundings. The room is bright and deceivingly huge. His mouth is odd and small and gaping. His eyes lock onto dark pupils he should probably recognize, but he doesn't have time to.

In a fraction of a minute, he blinks and opens blue eyes to a ceiling he's used to.

/ /

 _three / fourteen_

Naruto runs around the playground with a gap-toothed smile, chasing his best friend around in the mulch and racing him to the top of the slide. Sasuke—his dark-haired companion—grins at him, flashing him a peace sign before beginning his descent. The blonde hollers when Sasuke comes over and tackles him to the ground before beginning a tickle war. Sasuke stops with heavy breaths and a wide grin, picking mulch pieces out of his hair. He blinks and is nearly about to answer, but then he's somewhere strange.

A hand is in his hair, but the face of his companion is unrecognizable. He looks a little like Sasuke's older brother, but his hair's not as long, and the bags under his eyes aren't as deep. The big kid studies him for a moment before sighing. "Hold out your hand." Naruto obeys, more than a little frightened.

They walk in silence for a while before Naruto starts babbling. "Itachi, where's your hair?"

The teenager stills for a moment. "I'm not Itachi."

"Oh."

After a moment, the dark-haired stranger sighs again. "I sometimes wish that you didn't do this."

"Do what, mister?" Naruto pouts when he doesn't receive an answer. "Mister?"

"Forget it," he mutters in frustration.

Naruto is starting to get nervous, and he fidgets. "Where's Sasuke? He's my best friend and he was right next to me. We gotta find him."

The teen stops for a moment, digging in his pockets for a set of keys as they step onto an unfamiliar lawn. "I'm Sasuke."

"No way that's true! You were littler than me just a second ago, and my Sasuke's way nicer than you."

Sasuke rolls his eyes as they step into the condo. He pulls Naruto in front of a mirror. "Look. You're older, too."

"Woahhh, cool! I'm so tall! I'm like, an adult now!"

"We're teenagers."

"So cool! Teenagers are like…big kids!" Naruto is in wonder for a moment before he remembers that his mom is probably looking for him. "Is this my house?"

"No, it's mine," the brunette answers, sliding his shoes off.

His blue eyes widen. "It's real small now! Where's your family?"

He just huffs, forcing Naruto to take off his shoes and dragging him up to a room that looks remarkably sparse, just like his Sasuke's does. "Not home."

Naruto runs around the room and looks at all his cool pictures of planes and fancy books. He's midway through opening his mouth to ask for something to eat, but then he blinks and he's back on the playground with the real Sasuke, the one who's his age and who stole his cookies at daycare yesterday.

"I had a really cool dream," Naruto says.

"Really? You were real weird for a few minutes. Sorta lookin' around for your ma, but you know she's always just over on the bench."

"That's lame. You were old! Like, ancient, but real nice lookin'. Kinda like your brother."

"Your dreams suck. I'm gonna look so much better than Itachi when I grow up!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

They devolve into another rowdy tickle fight until their mothers come to pick them apart and take them home for the day.

/ /

 _six / thirty-two_

Naruto sits on the swing set of their favorite park with a blank expression.

Sasuke comes to join him at sunset, the rusted chains creaking as they slowly swing back and forth. He reaches for his sun-bronzed friend's hand, trying to keep him grounded, to keep him from looking like he's going to blow away in the breeze.

He's a moment away from opening his mouth to whisper Naruto's name when the blonde closes his eyes, fresh tears streaking down his face.

When he opens his eyes, a man who looks remarkably like Sasuke and Itachi is curled up against him. They're touching foreheads and almost doing mom-and-dad stuff like he's seen—had seen—his parents do hundreds of times in his young life.

It hurts all over again.

"Naruto?" His voice is deep and velvet and oddly familiar, though he's sure he's never met this man before. His face crinkles in concern before long fingers brush over the blonde's cheeks. "Hey, look at me."

"I'm real sorry, mister," he murmurs, unable to stop the tears from flowing. "It's been a very, very bad week."

Dark eyes search him before he eventually huffs out through his nose and he lets his shoulders relax. "I'm sure. What happened?"

"My parents are…my parents are…" Naruto sniffles and presses his palms to his eyelids.

The man says nothing, only holds him close and runs fingers through his hair. He holds him until he stops crying and feels like maybe he'll fall asleep.

He blinks back awake in Sasuke's arms. "I wish I could make it better," the brunette murmurs, small fingers tangled in Naruto's shirt.

Naruto tries very, very hard not to cry again.

/ /

 _ten / forty-seven_

Sasuke's fists come flying at him outside of school grounds.

He's angry—of course he's angry, Naruto remembers what it's like, having the fresh memories of loved ones' deaths looming over him—and he's taking it out on the blonde. "There's no reason for us to be friends. Look at us! My parents took your parents down and it's their fault. Hate me!"

"No!" Naruto punches Sasuke back, snarling at him. He wrestles with him until Sasuke is laid beneath him and then he bruises his arm. "It wasn't even their fault. It was an accident."

"That they could have prevented!"

"It happens, Sasuke. Your dad was the Chief of Police, but even he can't be everywhere at once."

"Your mom was the head of investigations and your dad was her partner. He should have stopped them, and you should hate me a lot more for that."

"Or," Naruto lets a punch hit him hard in the gut before he gasps and continues, "I could get you to admit that you're just a loser and you don't know why your parents are dead and that scares you!"

"They died because some lunatic couldn't accept his due punishment!" Sasuke yells at him, pulling Naruto's hair and starting to cry.

"They died, Sasuke. That's the end of that," Naruto hisses, grabbing Sasuke's hair in retaliation, readying himself to head-butt the brunette. "At least you have a family member still alive. At least he's willing to take care of you!"

"Don't you dare—"

"Dare what?! Dare what, you stupid—" Naruto's face scrunches up in conversation, spittle flying from his lips and then suddenly he blinks and he's somewhere else.

He feels sleepy and suddenly unwilling to fight anyone, let alone crazy-ass Uchiha Sasuke, who's out of his mind with grief right now.

Someone who could be a relative of the Uchihas' is sitting in a reclining chair, the television running lazily in the background. There's a book in his hand and glasses perched on a sharp nose. He's a handsome old man, with eyes as piercing as Sasuke's.

Naruto feels bad for blacking out somewhere and having this old man bring him to his home, but worse than anything, he feels bad that Sasuke's out somewhere, probably picking fights with anyone that'll look at him twice. He should go find him and stop him. "Hey, I'm sorry about…whatever happened that you had to bring me here."

The man's eyebrow rises over the rim of his glasses. After a long pause, he places a bookmark in his novel and puts it down. Naruto fidgets nervously on the man's couch.

"So," he drawls, his voice deep and soft, "How old are you right now?"

Naruto's fight or flight response is immediately activated, but he figures that, before he jumps out of his window because some creep is trying to sell him on the streets, that he should at least know how bad the dude is. It'll make the job easier for the police. "Ten."

His weird old host grunts. "Rough time." He stands out of his chair gracefully, which is in direct odds with his salt-and-pepper hair. "Let me guess. You haven't figured out what's going on yet."

"Well, yeah, you got that right," Naruto mumbles back, cornflower blue eyes following him through the living room.

"You do this, sometimes. Slip through time for a brief period." He flips through a photo album until he finds one picture and takes it out.

Naruto tentatively accepts the photo he's handed him and is taken aback. It's the photo they'd taken right before Sasuke's parents died in a house fire that may or may not have been an arsonist's attack. Sasuke doesn't exactly look pleased to be in the photo—he's always hated taking them—but he has a small little smile on his face and Naruto is beaming from ear to ear.

Iruka, Naruto's foster father, had taken the photo. A family friend of the Uchihas, Kakashi, is in the edge of the shot, crouching by the bushes in front of Iruka's home.

The photo is worn, like it had been taken decades ago rather than weeks.

"No way." Naruto is torn between creeped out and oddly enthralled. "Let's say I believe you, old man. Who're you supposed to be?"

He smirks a little bit. The expression is reminiscent of the one he'd only just punched off of his best friend's smug face. "Oh, I'm sure you could hazard a guess." He strides back to the recliner and slips the glasses off of his face. "So?"

"So what?" Naruto huffs in frustration, now that he's fairly certain he's not going to be killed any time soon.

"I figured you might like to talk, since you have nothing better to do." The man shrugs nonchalantly, like he couldn't care less whether Naruto talked or not. It pisses him off, so he starts ranting right away.

"Well, there's this total asshole I know—my best friend, actually—and his parents just died, you know? He's been acting like a real pain since then, even though all I wanna do is help. I…" He hesitates for a moment before continuing, "I know what it's like, y'know? But he keeps making these awful excuses and he doesn't want to do anything but fight. Which is like…fine, I guess, but we've fought more in this last week than we have in our entire lives. I'm getting really sick of it."

"I certainly don't miss being that age," the older man chuckles lowly. "He's lost. It's hard."

"I know it's hard," Naruto snaps quickly. "I just wish he could stop…beating himself up about it. It's nobody's fault. People…die."

"Give it time."

"Don't give me that standard line about time healing all or something."

"No, give your friendship time." The man shrugs again. "You can wear him down. He's listening, but you probably won't see the results for a long time."

Naruto feels like screaming. "That's so stupid."

His host snorts lightly. "That's life."

Naruto blinks back to Sasuke, who's now sitting at his side with a black eye and a deep scowl on his face. Seeing as how they're both here in moderate peace, he decides not to break the silence. They sit on the grass for a long time until Sasuke leaves, limping his way back to his new condo.

/ /

 _sixteen / twelve_

Naruto spends most of his time drooling over the girls in class and trying to be discreet about it. If he could stop opening his big mouth and ruining any potential relationship he could have with a female, maybe he could do some of the things his classmates have been whispering about for a year now.

He browses the web with a heady curiosity, amazed and awestruck by the shapes and sizes and positions. It overwhelms him to the point of overheating at odd times, which leads to odd erections, which just makes his life incredibly awkward.

Meanwhile, his best friend is as unfazed by puberty as he is everything else. His skin is clear, his eyes are black and blank and bored. They certainly aren't following the blossoming chests of the girls or their soft waists or their beautiful, solid thighs.

Then again, maybe Sasuke just doesn't talk about this sort of thing. They don't hang as much as they used to, these days.

"You like girls?" The blonde casts a line around a mouthful of his sandwich.

"I'm not gay, if that's what you're asking," Sasuke replies quietly, sipping at a bottle of iced tea.

Naruto's shoes scuff on the concrete. "Was just lookin' for somethin' to talk about." He carefully doesn't add that girls are taking up a lot of his mind, so he was hoping they could connect over the struggle.

"Try again, then," he grunts back, nearly slamming his tea back on the table.

"You don't have to get so pissy."

Sasuke glares at him. "I am not being pissy. I just don't feel like talking, alright?"

"Fine." He blinks and opens his eyes to find smaller hands than he's used to and a decidedly smaller table.

"I mean, I know Itachi's going to get into the FBI or the CIA with a recommendation," Sasuke's voice cracks and he pouts. Naruto is struck by how tiny he is. Although, given his line of sight, he's not much taller than his pint-sized best friend. "I just don't know what I want to do. I thought about…investigations. To track down the killer." Dark eyes flick up at his friend and Sasuke scowls his trademark scowl. "Naruto? Are you listening?"

"Y-yeah," he coughs out, taken aback again by how high-pitched his voice is. "I guess I'm just surprised, is all. This must really be bothering you. You don't usually talk so much."

"It's important to have purpose," Sasuke replies primly, gripping his chopsticks too tightly. "If I don't decide now, my life could fall into ruin. I have to prove myself."

"Shit, you're just a kid, why're you so serious all the time?" Sasuke's lip curls at that and Naruto throws up his hands in defense. "Sorry! Sorry, I'm probably a kid now too, huh?"

Dark brows knit in confusion. "What?"

"Oh, fuck, I'm sorry." Naruto's mind is racing. "I, uh, the last time this happened was a while ago. I guess little me hasn't told you yet?"

Sasuke stands to leave the table, infuriated. "Naruto, stop making fun of me."

"I'm not! I swear I'm not, just hear me out, Sasuke," he pleads, grabbing his friend's shoulder at the last second. "I'm just from…further along in our lives, I guess? I do this, sometimes. Jump through time. I'm not real sure why."

"Why would you say that? Are you just trying to mock me because you think I was acting toomature?"

Naruto huffs. "Believe me, you're plenty more mature than me. I'm not making fun of you. I'm really sixteen. I've had a growth spurt and everything. I'm a hundred-and-sixty something centimeters and I'm totally gonna outgrow you in a week."

Sasuke glances at him with disdain, and Naruto thinks of how frickin' weird it is to see somebody so small look so angry. He supposes it wasn't so weird when they were both this age. "Have you done this before?"

"Yeah. Don't remember when it started, though. Like, when I was a kid, I'd see weird stuff and some guy a few times, but I was so young, I thought I was dreaming. The first time I really remembered it happening was a few years ago."

The wheels are turning in the brunette's head and his shoulders finally relax. "Alright. I'll believe you. There have been a few times that you've been just…really weird. Like, where you've acted way older than you usually do."

"Gee, thanks a lot." Sasuke snorts and Naruto laughs. After a moment, his eyes fall again and Naruto nervously scratches the back of his head. "So, guess I interrupted a real big heart-to-heart. Wanna finish?"

"It wasn't that serious," the dark-haired boy picks at his food with a mutter.

"I wouldn't say that." Naruto sips his milk and tries to give his friend his most assuring smile. "We were talking about career stuff, right?"

"I guess, it's just," Sasuke struggles with the words, just like he usually does, and it makes Naruto miss their close friendship of childhood more than ever. "Itachi's always so cryptic, you know? I can't get a read on whether he wants me to have nothing to do with investigation, or whether he'd like nothing more than for me to become the Chief of Police like father was."

"And," Naruto hums around a mouthful of his sandwich, "What do you want to do—" before Sasuke can jump to answer, he holds up a hand and finishes, "—after the guy who burned your house down is locked up?"

Sasuke's face scrunches up and he crosses his arms in thought. He finally replies, "I think I'd like to be a surgeon of some sort, or maybe a forensic specialist. Medical studies are a pastime of mine."

Naruto rolls his eyes with a lack of surprise. Sasuke's always been such a nerd and a weirdo. "Then do that. Screw Itachi. You can work with the police in forensics and maybe that guy'll strike again. You can catch him with the evidence."

Sasuke chuckles lowly. "Okay, now I know you're older. There's no way this you could pronounce forensics without spitting on me." He leans back and closes his eyes for a moment before allowing a small smile to grace his fine-boned features. "Thanks, I guess."

"You thanking me has got to be the weirdest thing ever," Naruto fakes barfing and Sasuke chuckles again. "You'll figure it out. You're really smart, you know?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Bastard," Naruto jests and Sasuke continues smiling. After a moment, he studies his younger best friend. "So, what, you're not curious?"

"Curious about what?" Sasuke starts cleaning up his lunch when the warning chime comes.

"The future! If I were in your place, I'd be asking all sorts of questions. You know, about having a girlfriend, about life, about what kind of shoes older-Sasuke wears."

Sasuke shrugs. "I dunno. I think it's more fun this way. I get the surprise of finding out along the way. You have to keep putting together a puzzle that doesn't have all the pieces."

Naruto is about to compliment his sage wisdom for a brat, but then he blinks midway through throwing out his milk carton and he's back at the familiar table with his sixteen-year-old best friend.

Sasuke is almost smiling, which, how rare is that, for him? Never mind the fact that he just saw his younger counterpart do the same. "You weren't so different this time. All you talked about were girls' hair, boobs, and action figures."

"Excuse you, they're called figurines." Naruto chides him lightly and then they both laugh. He pauses for a moment before he says, "Hey, listen. You wanna just…go home and hang after school? Maybe we can play games." The invitation is stilted because he hasn't had Sasuke over in months.

The brunette raises an eyebrow. "What's the occasion?"

"Do we need one? I dunno, I guess between me miserably trying to land a date, and you desperately trying to avoid one, we haven't hung out much and…" His throat feels dry just thinking the words, but he finally chokes out, "and maybe I miss you, okay, asshole?"

Sasuke seems to go blank at the words, like maybe he'd never considered that his best friend might have missed him. "Alright," he says slowly, like he's waiting for Naruto to say, wait, I changed my mind.

"Yes! I'll see you after school, okay?" He grabs Sasuke's hand in a shake with a blinding smile just as the chime sounds and then he dashes away. "Don't be late!"

He watches Naruto until he's out of sight and neatly cleans up his spot at the table.

/ /

eighteen / four

His eyes flit open in a room he's not overly familiar with. There are some old posters and stuff he recalls keeping, but it's not enough to make him think that he's at home.

After a moment, he lifts his arms in the dusky light and glances at his tiny, tiny hands. Suddenly, Naruto's heart is racing and he sits straight up in bed. Before he can toss the covers off and jump out of bed, he notes the tiny body on the edge of his bed, curled up and loose-limbed in sleep.

He'd know that unruly head of ebony hair anywhere. "Sasuke," he whispers heatedly. "Wake up and tell me I'm not dreaming."

"You're talking funny," Sasuke mumbles back, rubbing sleep out of his eyes as he sits up in all of his childish glory. He glares at Naruto with his tiny baby eyes and Naruto nearly weeps with relief when his best friend pinches him. "I was having a good nap."

Unwilling to wait a single moment longer, just in case he blinks back to his usual time, he hurries out of bed and Sasuke follows him nervously. Naruto storms downstairs, startled to see both their mothers chatting happily at the dinner table. His mother's got her hair fixed in a messy bun and their dads are discussing politics lowly in the places they generally keep at this table.

"Naruto?" Sasuke tugs at his hand. "What's the matter?"

Without replying to him, Naruto swings over to his mother and tackles her with the strongest hug he can manage. He barely manages to keep from crying as he moves on to his father, and then Sasuke's mother and father, loving all of them desperately and missing them far more than he cares to admit.

Kushina giggles. "What's wrong with you, silly boy?" She cradles him in her arms like he's not half her height already, and heavy as hell to hold. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Naruto shakes his head, then nods, and then shakes his head again, which makes everyone else in the room laugh.

"He was sleep real good 'til just when he woke up, aunty," Sasuke, the little tattler, reports. "I made sure."

"Made sure not to fall asleep on guard duty, I hope," Mikoto hums lazily and Sasuke flushes with embarrassment.

Naruto just gazes at them with wide, baby blue eyes full of wonder and glistening nearly to the point of tears. Sasuke throws him worried glances and he smiles back softly, hoping that he'll understand that he's fine.

He closes his eyes and wakes up right back where he was before when he dozed off, in the middle of the auditorium. Sasuke's just a couple rows away from him in the boys' section, giving him a lookthat tells him to straighten his back and shape up. The worst is almost over.

Filled with a fresh enthusiasm, he cheers when the principal announces that the hell known as college-prep high school is finally over.

The blonde meets up with his girlfriend, Sakura, and kisses her softly on the temple. They pose for pictures that Iruka takes and Kakashi manages to sneak Sasuke into some of them, too. Itachi ruffles his brother's hair, wishing him the best, and then the three of them, nearly inseparable since two of them started dating, climb into Sakura's car and zip off to a party their friends are holding.

Naruto pledges to get as wasted as is humanly possible tonight, to which Sasuke says that he won't be able to outlast him, and Sakura says that he'd best watch it if he wants to still be dating tomorrow.

They walk in, say hello to everyone, and Naruto immediately signals that the party can turn up, because he's the life of it. He is the center, and everyone loves him deeply and desperately since he's such a likeable goofball. He gives a mock-speech, making fun of the student president and valedictorian, Sasuke. "Uh, sorry I have such a stick lodged up my ass, but at least I still like to have a good time, guys!" With that sign off, he slaps his own ass and blows the crowd a kiss before downing a beer.

Sasuke snarks at him in response, Kiba ruffles Naruto's hair, and Shikamaru is cackling like mad. The party devolves into conversation and light dancing for most of the night, where Sakura and Naruto dance like fire runs through their veins. Sasuke watches them with passing interest, silent and detached for most of the night.

Once the party spirals out of control, around eleven, Naruto and Sasuke slip out. Sasuke is sipping on whiskey out on Chouji's porch, limbs loose and silence unbelievably comfortable after hours of the nonsense inside.

They sit for nearly twenty minutes without saying anything, just sipping at the shared cup of liquor until Sasuke speaks. "Looked like you left for a while, in the middle of graduation."

Naruto is always baffled how easily Sasuke can just tell when he skips through time. "Well, little me should have been asleep. Hopefully I didn't cause any problems."

"No," the brunette assures him, pale lips clasped around the cup. "You didn't." He pauses for a moment before talking again, albeit more quietly, a little nervous. Naruto is probably the only person alive aside from Itachi that can tell. "So?"

He's a little surprised. Sasuke never wants to know what he's seen. Naruto takes another sip when Sasuke passes the cup. "It was…good." He leans back on his palms after he gives the drink back to his friend. "God, I just…it was so weird, seeing them all again. I almost shit myself."

"Nobody would've found it strange," Sasuke deadpans, and Naruto lightly cuffs him on the back of the head. "That's it? Just…good?"

"It was good, Sasuke," he murmurs, brushing fingers with the brunette when they exchange holds on the cup. "We were just kids. I don't know! We were…" He fishes for a word before settling on, "We were happy."

Silence falls between them again until Naruto decides he should take Sakura home. Sasuke watches him go.

/ /

 _twenty / fifteen_

As soon as his key turns in the apartment, he can hear Naruto sucking face and it pisses him off.

"If Hinata doesn't have her clothes on, I'm leaving."

After a moment of their embarrassed chatter, a ruffled Naruto and the dark-haired beauty he's dating emerge and the blonde grins at Sasuke. "Sorry. We were just watching a movie. Mostly."

Hinata looks like she's about to blush out of her skin when Naruto kisses her neck. She giggles and quietly bows her head to the other brunette in the room before slipping out of their apartment. As soon as she's gone, Sasuke glares at Naruto and clenches his fists. "Fucking stop doing this."

Naruto raises an eyebrow. "When we moved in together, this was a discussion we had. You said you were okay with it."

"Yeah, well, it hadn't happened all the time back then. I know better now," Sasuke mutters as he slams his things down on the floor and yanks the refrigerator door open.

"What, are you like…jealous of the action I'm getting?" Naruto barks out a laugh in disbelief. "Dude, you could have half the campus in your lap in an hour if you sent out a message."

"You know that's not it," the brunette snarls, "We've talked about this how many times, Naruto?"

"Shit, Sasuke, it was just a joke. What's got you so wound up today?" The blonde raises an eyebrow. When Sasuke doesn't answer, he reaches for his shoulder, and Sasuke shrugs him off angrily. "Answer me, you dick, I just want to help!"

Sasuke slaps Naruto across the face, hissing in anger. "I do not need help and you need to understand that—"

"I know! I'm just trying to talk to you—" Midway through screwing his eyes shut in anger and finishing his sentence, he opens them to reach for Sasuke's shoulder again and finds that it's a lot smaller than he recalls.

Sasuke picks his arm off with a sour look, but his face is a lot softer and his hair is a lot sloppier. "I'm not jealous of Shikamaru, Naruto. I don't want a girlfriend. Or, before you ask, a boyfriend. Not right now. I've told you this."

"I'm sure we were having a great heart-to-heart, as per usual," Naruto deadpans lazily, sliding against the unnecessarily familiar gray lockers. "But I just swapped."

Sasuke hums in acknowledgement, carefully slipping into his gym shorts. Naruto follows suit, not missing this part of high school at all. "How old are you right now?"

"Twenty," the blonde grunts into his t-shirt, marveling at the size of his old school. "So, answer me this. What's your issue with talking to me about relationships? You always get hella defensive when I try to understand the whole 'no emotional and physical closeness' thing, but you never actually explain it to me."

"It's not something you can just understand, I guess," Sasuke murmurs as they head out to the field. The girls have to go first this afternoon, so they have time to sit and chat. "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me either. Basically, I'd have to really like someone before I'd allow that person to touch me. We'd have to be friends more than anything. I don't know if I'm interested in sex or not, yet, and I'm definitely not interested in finding out until after that guy is taken care of."

"So, let me get this straight," Naruto scrunches his face up in concentration. "You aren't just like, emotionless all the time? Because that's definitely what you want everyone to think."

Sasuke levels him with a stare. "You're not everyone, Naruto. I thought you understood that by now."

"I'm trying, Sasuke," the blonde tiredly sighs. "It's hard to be friends with you sometimes, but I swear, I am trying my best to get it."

They stop talking for a while before the brunette summarizes his feelings. "I'm just…focused on something right now. I masturbate sometimes, just like you. I find some people aesthetically pleasing. The idea of sex interests me, but it's not…my thing. If I'm going to date, it has to be more than just that. But right now," he stands up and begins to stretch and finishes breathlessly, "I don't care about any of that. I have to get a recommendation to my school of choice. That's the first step in reaching my goal."

Naruto almost tells him you will, but he refrains at the last second. No point in spoiling the surprise for him. "Okay. Can we maybe, talk like this again? No yelling and fist fighting?"

Sasuke snorts as he pulls his leg back. "That's up to you, loser."

He's a moment from barking out a laugh when he switches back to his apartment in the blink of an eye, finding Sasuke sitting on the living room couch and two cups of tea on the coffee table.

Naruto downs his, knowing that he still likes it the same way as he did back then—with a dash of milk and tons of sugar. After he finishes the lukewarm beverage, he puts his hands on his knees and bows his head to Sasuke. "Sorry. I wasn't listening."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow and slowly puts his cup down. "Okay."

After he heaves a shaky breath, the blonde starts talking again. "I'm all for you completing your batshit goals, okay? Go on, double major in some radical medical science and criminal justice. Work with your brother and finalize the case or something. But could you please, for my sake if nothing else, tell me that you're at least making yourself a little happy too?"

His dark eyes study Naruto's bright ones and he sighs. "Big request."

"I care about you," Naruto says truthfully, a soft smile lighting his features. "You're one of a kind, and you've got a real special kind of presence—and before you say anything, do not get a big head over that." Sasuke chuckles at the note. "Just because you're like, a genius, that doesn't mean you can't relax sometimes."

"I'll work on it." Companionable silence falls between them for a few minutes before Sasuke talks again. "This doesn't mean I'm not still angry with you for having sex at our place five nights out of the week."

Naruto's face falls drastically at the words. "Hey!"

"Twice a week here, and make sure you warn me. That's all I'm willing to concede," Sasuke asserts himself and sips his tea. "I'm a busy, special guy, you know?"

Naruto flushes hot up to his ears. "You bastard! I knew I was gonna regret saying that, I knew it!"

Sasuke laughs quietly, fiddling with his cup. "Naruto?"

"What," he grumbles back.

"You ever tell your girlfriends about the skipping?" Ebony eyes study baby blues, which roll as he scowls.

"Hell no. You're the only person I'd trust with that kind of info. Anyone else would have shipped me off to the hospital ten times over, but you're always there. You trust me when I explain things."

"Well, yeah," Sasuke murmurs. "You're a horrible liar."

"Hey!"

"…And I trust you. You're not stupid, Naruto. Your intuition is strong, so you know when things aren't normal." Sasuke hums. "Guess that makes you sorta special too."

Naruto tackles Sasuke in a hug and ruffles his hair while his dark-haired best friend complains, but does not shove him off. "Aww. That's pretty much the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Sasuke grunts back, "Oh, shut up, moron."

/ /

 _twenty-one / thirty-four_

Naruto blinks awake on his apartment couch, where he'd passed out against Sasuke. Just as he's ready to yawn and tell his best friend that they should go to their futons while everyone else is knocked out, he opens his eyes in a different room in a different time of day.

An older man is lying in his lap and he almost startles him awake by laughing. It's not hard to tell that this is Sasuke. His hair is longer, there are more crinkles on his forehead, and he looks way more at ease than the brunette he's used to, but he can recognize him this time.

"I know you're awake," the older man murmurs, sitting up. "How old are you right now?"

"It's my birthday, so guess I'm twenty-one," Naruto answers him sleepily, stretching out as he yawns. "How about you?"

"Thirty-four."

"Wow, you look great!"

Sasuke grunts out his thanks and pads across the unfamiliar and beautifully decorated living room into an equally gorgeous kitchen. "It's your birthday here, too."

Naruto looks around, finding no empty beer bottles and a polished table. "No party, then?"

"It's next weekend," Sasuke fiddles with things in the kitchen until he finishes making a simple breakfast of miso soup, rice with ginger, and sautéed fish. "You want an egg in your soup?"

"No thanks," Naruto replies, shuffling away from the couch to join him at the table. Once they clap their hands and give thanks for the food, he chats. "Must be your place, since it's super clean and fancy."

"Hm," Sasuke replies, picking the fish apart with his chopsticks.

The day is remarkably quiet. Naruto and Sasuke have tea and watch TV and sit around—his birthday is on a Sunday, this year, it seems. Sasuke chides him quietly and Naruto laughs obnoxiously at the weird commercials.

They share a beer and whisper cheers to each other at sunset before he flips back to his usual time, where Sasuke is quiet and typically surly and the post-party apartment has been cleaned.

Naruto appreciates the lazy day, inviting Sasuke to sit in the living room to study while he plays games and he reluctantly agrees.

It's one of the best birthdays he's had in years.

/ /

twenty-six / seventeen

They celebrate the night that Sasuke finally achieves the goal of his life, but it comes with a heavy price. His parents' arsonist has been apprehended after sixteen long years, right after he struck again with the exact same MO against another notable authority in the police force. Right afterwards, Sasuke does something unbelievably stupid and Naruto finds him, saving his miserable life.

Much later, months later, Naruto sprinkles his unnaturally pale back and neck and forehead with kisses, bubbling with happiness he can't contain. Even Sasuke can't help the few hesitant touches and hugs that he gives the blonde and his brother, so drunk off of the achievement and pleasure and recovery that he almost feels sick.

He's been letting Naruto in more and more since his last break up, which was clean, but emotionally devastating for his friend. The last few years, there have been quiet nights and something creeping away from friendship that's far beyond their control, but it feels natural, it feels good, feels like it's helping him fight away from bone-deep anxiety and depression. The feeling desperately unsettles him, that he could be so focused on something other than the murderer. Once Sasuke recovers and the arsonist is sentenced, Naruto worms his way even deeper into his best friend's heart.

Just holding Naruto's hand—it's something he struggles with, because it's weird and awkward and it's nicer than he could have ever imagined—is enough to make him hyperventilate, but the blonde is sweet and patient and a better…whatever Naruto is to him…than he could have imagined.

Naruto just holds him sometimes, innocently nuzzling into his warmth.

One night, when he feels like he can do this; that he can talk to him about that aspect of their relationship, about how maybe he can stomach this with Naruto, maybe he can take the plunge instead of want to throw himself into the nearest river at the very thought, he works up the courage and gets ready to tell the blonde such, and then, his expression changes drastically.

Naruto is looking at him with adoration and blind trust and this stupid smile, and then he's confused.

Or rather, the blonde had been ready to kiss Sasuke's hand and call it a night, body viscerally aching to do more, but absolutely unwilling to break this tentative thing they have going to satisfy a passing urge, and then he's pulled away when he blinks.

He comes face-to-face with a teenaged Sasuke, whose eyes are sharp and his shoulders tense like he's ready to leap out of his skin at any given moment.

One thing is for damn sure—Naruto does not miss him being this age.

"Listen here, you sack of shit," Naruto grumbles, furrowing his brow at the notebooks full of doodles and equations he can't even begin to recall. "Learn how to take a break sometimes. Everyone gets burned out. I think I'm only here for a few minutes this time, so here's what you need to know: you're plenty smart and everything takes patience. Also, sometimes I just know, y'know."

"Well, that was vague," Sasuke scoffs lowly, his voice settling into a timbre Naruto is familiar with. "What's all that supposed to mean?"

"It means you need to learn to take things one day at a time, you little asshole. Be grateful for life."

"Funny, the you that was here with me just a minute ago said the same thing." The teenager leans back against Naruto's bed. "So, let me guess. I did something reckless."

"I was so pissed you hid it from me for so long," Naruto mumbles. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"The opportunity never particularly rose," the brunette sighs. "You just would've made a fuss."

"Yeah, for you to believe in a little bit of self-care," the blonde snarkily replies. "I'm not exactly the poster-boy for mental health myself. You know that."

Sasuke sighs again. "I know."

They sit in tense silence until Naruto returns to his time, and he tiredly runs a hand through Sasuke's hair. "I hate you, by the way, just in case I haven't said it recently."

"A younger you said it about sixty seconds ago." Sasuke leans into his touch cautiously, and initiates a very, very gentle hug. "I'm glad, you know."

"Huh?" Naruto stills as Sasuke's lips just barely ghost over his neck and he flushes deeply.

"I'm glad to be here. I'm sorry." His voice is soft and low and his hands are shaking.

Naruto's throat feels dry and he tries very hard to school his pacing breaths. "You don't have to be sorry. It's okay."

Sasuke inhales deeply, and then says, "I want to talk."

"I'm listening."

Sasuke grounds himself in the steady lines of Naruto's back, in the reassurance in his baby blue eyes. "About us. About…sex."

Naruto's eyes grow wide. "I thought you said…"

"I know what I said." He looks right into his best friend's eyes and pulls his shirt up just the slightest bit. "I still stand by most of it. But I think I'd like to see you," his voice is barely audible and Naruto is sort of guessing at most of the words since his mind feels like it's flown out of his body. "Touching me."

"But…"

"You want me to be happy, right?"

"Yes."

"I want this."

"This isn't what I meant, Sasuke."

"I think sex with you would make me happy. It's you."

Naruto can barely breathe and Sasuke's not doing too well himself. After a long, blank moment, he manages to rasp out, "Just one step at a time. One little thing every week or so, and you stop me the instant I make you uncomfortable."

"Alright," Sasuke agrees quietly, nervous energy cycling through his body and a nigh physical presentation of lust rushing through their touching skin.

That night is the first time Naruto sloppily mumbles that he loves him.

/ /

 _twenty-five / twenty-two_

Sasuke is caught in the middle of shitstorm. There's the stress of finals, the stress of the case getting away from him, the stress of not taking any of his medications because they make him sleepy and he needs to focus, and the stress of Naruto seemingly breezing through life and sitting happily next to him while Sasuke's life is falling into pieces around him.

They've been a lot closer since he broke up with Hinata a couple years back, and Naruto is thriving off of their renewed friendship. Naruto had needed somebody to help him work through why it had ended, even though they'd been so good for each other. Sasuke didn't need anything, but talking to the blonde was a momentary reprieve from eight-point font medical texts and his brother's hundreds of messages about his findings in law.

Although he won't admit it, Sasuke feels good just hanging around him too, but that feeling brings him back to the sheer determination to put his parents' killer on death row. Damn Itachi; damn the law; damn school.

Naruto comes back to the apartment with a wide smile and a pizza from Sasuke's favorite place. "Put your tax documents down and come eat, punk!" Sasuke grunts his refusal and the blonde comes into his room, flipping the overhead light on. "I know you need a break. You've probably been at it for hours while I was hanging with Kiba and Sakura, and I'm certain you haven't eaten."

"Go away," Sasuke grumbles, voice breaking from lack of use.

"Not until I see you eat some of this pizza," Naruto pulls it through the doorway so that the brunette can smell it. "Come on, I even put nasty-ass vegetables on it, just for you."

"I said, go away!" Sasuke raises his voice far beyond its' normal octaves and Naruto reels back, eyes narrowing in disbelief.

"Are you okay?"

"No! That's why I need you to leave me alone," the brunette hisses in pain, clutching his pounding head. "Get out!"

"Not until you tell me what's going on with you," Naruto says calmly, putting the pizza down on the floor for now and rushing to his friend's side. "You need water? Migraine medicine?"

"I need you to stop fucking talking to me! Leave me alone, Naruto! Why do you even fucking bother? What I do is none of your business, and you're a moron if you think talking me through my problems is going to fix my life!"

Voice straining, the blonde whispers, "Just calm down, alright? You need to relax right now."

"I'm fucking calm, goddammit!" He throws all of his carefully organized papers off of his desk and Naruto winces, closing his eyes and opening them to a decidedly quieter, calmer Sasuke.

"It's because she has this ideal of what a guy is supposed to be. She has an ideal for the way sex is supposed to be, and you're not living up to her dream-expectations."

"Yeah, I uh," Naruto scratches the back of his neck nervously. "I know."

Sasuke studies him for a minute before scowling. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-five."

"You're a lot smarter than you are now," he jibes. "How long are you staying?"

"I dunno, maybe a few minutes. All I remember from then is…" Oh shit, Sasuke's having an attack in my time. "Forget it, you don't give a shit anyways, but I have to get home."

Sasuke perks up at that. "You know how to get back more quickly now?"

"No!" Naruto nearly shouts in frustration. "I don't have a damn clue, but you don't understand how crucial it is that I go home right now." He wracks his mind, trying to remember the incident from the other perspective. Sasuke had been shouting about things he didn't understand at the time, had tried to hit him with a lamp. They had tousled a bit until Naruto had restrained him and let him quietly seethe his anger out. After he recalls that his younger self handles things moderately well, he relaxes slightly, but his shoulders are still tense. He has to get back and coax Sasuke into taking his migraine medicine, at least.

"You remember this trip?"

"More or less," Naruto mumbles in exhaustion, sinking into the couch. "School going well right now? What were we up to?"

"We're on break right now," Sasuke replies, "and you were asking me about your relationship. You were less than pleased to hear me dissect it piece-by-piece."

Naruto winces. He remembers the casual dressing-down his best friend had given him with regards to his inability to satisfy Hinata, both emotionally and physically. It hadn't been one of his finest days. "Yeah, well, this is kind of a weird period of life for me. Be prepared for some really rough nights."

Sasuke sighs. "Okay." After a moment, he motions to the living room as a whole, which is a little messy right now. "Feel free to relax and look around, if you want."

Naruto thinks it's impossible to relax right now, but he does restlessly fiddle with things. His phone has some messages he'd rather not recall right now, so he ignores it.

He thinks he remembers Itachi excelling at his job and helping Sasuke through college at this time, despite his declining health. He pulls through a bout of cancer too, if Naruto remembers correctly, and whenever his brother has to go to the hospital, it puts Sasuke on edge. "How's Itachi?"

"He'll be out of the hospital in a few days." Sasuke sounds pretty calm when he says it, so there must not be any complications this session. "He's overworking and being a nosy busybody. Nothing new."

"How about the old men?"

"As stupidly happy as always," Sasuke groans, fishing his phone out of his pocket. He flicks through photos until he finds a picture of the Iruka and Kakashi baking a cake, getting batter all over each other. Naruto pretends to retch at the sight.

Naruto feels unsteady on his feet all of the sudden – oh fuck, he forgot he was working all these crazy hours at the time, and the blackouts that came with his lack of sleep. He can hear Sasuke calling him and can feel his strong hands trying to ease him to the ground until he blinks back to where they're older.

The sleepy fog is lifted almost immediately, and he shakes his head. "You take your medicine yet?"

Sasuke is slightly bruised, but mostly he just looks tired instead of infuriated. "Just the one for migraines." It doesn't make him nauseous or tired, and he can go back to hitting the books whenever he wants. The rest of his meds throw him off.

Naruto sits on the couch quietly, noting that the pizza is now on the table and it hasn't been touched. He reaches for a slice. "That's fine for now. How're you feeling?"

"Like shit."

"Wanna talk about it?" It's not really a question, and he already knows the answer.

"No."

The blonde sighs and chews quietly, waiting until Sasuke picks up a slice to eat before he closes his eyes.

/ /

 _thirty-seven / forty-nine_

They settle together. After Sasuke decides to throw his energy and passion fully into medical pursuits, he starts earning grants for research. He has enough money from investments and insurance for a big change.

He buys a house with Naruto soon after Itachi dies. Neither one of them acknowledge that it's done to help clear the brunette's mind of the chaotic misery swirling inside of it.

They swap between who cooks and who cleans. Naruto quietly reminds him of his presence by tangling their fingers together and reading him funny articles from the web. Both of them let the TV run as background noise as they type together on their computers.

Naruto had imagined his life in his late thirties to be radically different when he was in his early twenties. He'd imagined that he'd have it together, that he'd be in a stable job, that he'd hopefully have a wife and kid by now.

Of course, he'd never thought he and Sasuke would wind up here, let alone so comfortable and happy. He wouldn't go so far as to say things are all good all the time, but they make the best out of every day. Sasuke explores and he finds passion in dirty talk and watching Naruto put on a show for him more than being a participant, and Naruto finds that he loves that more than he can explain.

He loves Sasuke so viscerally, it's sort of strange to think that he hadn't even held his hand romantically before age twenty-five or so.

He's curled against his boyfriend in their years-past-broken-in mattress and sleepily runs his hands through his long, silky hair until he blinks and his hair is much shorter than he recalls, and it's got greys smattered throughout. He just sighs and pulls Sasuke closer, anchored by his constant presence throughout the ages. "Will I ever stop skipping?" He whispers lazily against this Sasuke's bare back. The mattress here feels fluffy, and Sasuke has more smatterings of freckles across his shoulders. Naruto's sure that he's in the future, from his mental perspective.

Sasuke hums at his words. "How old are you now?"

"Thirty-seven." Naruto draws the words out, watching in fascination as his boyfriend rolls over and studies him. "And you?"

"Forty-nine." Sasuke's hand is bandaged, which concerns him, but the brunette doesn't seem overly worried about it, so he tries to relax. "Getting old."

"Every year it sounds younger," the blonde murmurs, taking in the dark eyes, the long lashes, the new haircut. "You good?"

"Yeah," Sasuke nods, runs his bandaged fingers over Naruto's eyebrows. "I'm good."

After a brief silence, Naruto asks, "Sasuke, why do you think I jump through time?"

Intense eyes pierce the blonde's baby blues, and he chuckles lightly. "My personal theory is that the universe can't keep up with all your energy, so it has to disperse it through random intervals of time."

"Ugh, you would say something so ridiculous, you nerd." Naruto rolls his eyes. "C'mon, I'm being serious here."

"I don't know, Naruto," Sasuke says, sitting up and pulling his knee to his chest so that he can rest his arm on it. "All I can say is that, on my end, you always turn up at the right time."

Naruto laughs softly. "What was the funniest one for you so far?"

Sasuke closes his eyes in thought for a moment. "A couple years ago, you were a kid. You came from a time shortly after my parents had died." After he says the words, he pauses for a long time, and then smiles slightly. "You seemed sure that I had kidnapped you."

He gapes and guffaws at that, wiping tears out of his eyes from laughing so hard. "I think I sort of remember that! I thought you were some kooky old man. You were so freaking chill about me thinking you were a murderous kidnapper, though." He caught his breath and smiled softly. "You just started that photo album in my time, because I asked you to. Thank god it came in handy."

Naruto slowly stretches and gets out of bed, shuffling to the kitchen in their house. Things are mostly in the same places, although several updates have been had, and there are a hundred more utensils in the drawers than there are now. He makes breakfast in relative quiet and eats with Sasuke, who wears glasses in this time, who scrolls through the news and makes a few quiet phone calls.

Right before he leaves, he takes the glasses off, pulls Sasuke in for a gentle kiss, and whispers to him. "You just get more handsome with time. Totally unfair."

"It's alright," Sasuke chides back, a soft expression on his face and dark eyes full of unbridled passion, as always. "I think your baby-face and platinum-blonde hair are charming."

"Fucking asshole," Naruto lightheartedly murmurs as a retort, closing his eyes and opening them to a Sasuke he's nominally more familiar with. He repeats his insult again to this version of his boyfriend for good measure.

"So you said. I asked," Sasuke smirks against his shoulder, arms looping around his waist to pull him closer. "Whether that's supposed to be an insult or an invitation."

The blonde growls and proceeds to wrestle with Sasuke back to their bedroom.

/ /

 _forty-eight / seven_

He blinks awake in a body that feels overheated and tinier than he's used to.

Sasuke is watery-eyed by his side, and the fever makes every word feel heavy in his mouth.

"I'll be okay, Sasuke," Naruto assures him. He doesn't even remember getting sick. "Don't cry." Naruto reaches for his hand and tries to offer his best friend his most reassuring smile, but it hurts to even do that. "I know. I'm really strong, y'know? I'm gonna be fine."

Sasuke hums in agreement. "Get better soon. Your favorite series has a new game coming out tomorrow."

Naruto laughs. "I'll be better in time to play."

"You better!" Sasuke bossily demands and Naruto chuckles again.

He comes home to Sasuke reading in bed and Naruto fishes for his hand with a lazy smile.

"G'morning."

Sasuke runs his fingers over the blonde's knuckles. "Welcome back."

/ /

fifty / thirty

Something makes him think today's the day. It's the last time.

It's sort of weird. He's been jumping through time for so much of his life that for it to stop happening feels strange. It'll be good to go through a potential-midlife crisis without also having to worry about puberty again.

He leans down and closes his eyes, kissing Sasuke on the temple before he comes back to a moment decidedly more heated—the middle of one of his early explorations with his boyfriend. Their style is different now, but he sort of misses this youthful passion and the excessive amount of time he spent cataloguing every reaction, every sound Sasuke made, bickering with him verbally and trying to please him at the same time.

But, this moment is not for him. This Sasuke deserves to spend this time with this Naruto. God knows they'll both appreciate it in days soon to come.

"Hey, I'm really sorry." Naruto pulls his fingers from his lover gingerly and tries to look as apologetic as possible. "I switched."

"Shit, god, you're not younger than twenty-six, are you?" Sasuke eyes him warily as he cleans up and pulls the covers over himself. He scoots away from Naruto so quickly that the blonde feels worse.

"No, no, I'm fifty," Naruto assures him. "I don't think I'll be here long."

Sasuke is gruff and standoffish. Naruto can't blame him—they'd had a pretty good mood going, and he'd ruined it by warping more than twenty years into the future. "What makes you say that?"

"I don't know," Naruto answers honestly, shrugging. He looks around for his pants, which he hopes are clean and knows instinctively aren't, but he pulls them on without underwear anyways. "Something just tells me this is the last time."

Sasuke's fiery dark eyes study him.

"Hey, listen. Since I won't be here long, I just want you to know something." He sits with legs crossed at the edge of his ratty old futon in their old apartment. "I love you, no matter which me I am. No matter which state of mind you find me in. You're the best friend I could've ever wished for." He sucks in a shaky breath, trying very hard not to cry and failing miserably. "I'm glad that it was you—that you were the connecting point every time. I'm glad that you were my anchor. And one last thing," as he speaks, he can tell Sasuke's not far from tears himself, "I'm really, really glad you're alive, Sasuke."

"You're so damn sentimental," Sasuke hoarsely replies, eyes glossy and hands fisted in the sheets futilely protecting his modesty.

"Yeah," Naruto laughs, "I totally am."

In the blink of an eye, he's back home, and tears are still running down his face.

He buries his face in Sasuke's shirt and murmurs declarations of love until his partner smacks him over the head and murmurs that he's being annoying.

Once he gets quiet and decides that they should start making dinner, Sasuke asks, "So, how old are you this time?"

"I'm fifty, you stupid dickweed! I'm only getting older from here on out, in a strictly chronological fashion!"

"I know," Sasuke chortles before he splashes water on Naruto's face and they chase each other around the house with filthy insults and huge grins.

* * *

 **end notes:** I haven't quite decided on writing a Sasuke-version, which would be thusly titled _the a-sides_. I think it would be very fun to explore, but would also take quite a bit of time, much like this did. Hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!


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